**************************************************************************************************************************************White Birds
This past summer Drink Up Buttercup morphed into White Birds featuring three of the Buttercups; James Harvey, Farzad Houshiarnejad, and Mike Cammarata. The White Birds’ ambient sun kissed four song debut EP on Grizzly Records is a gorgeous, reminiscent-of-the-Fleet-Foxes-meets-Beach-Boys-Surf’s-Up collection of breezy pop songs. The band recorded a Key Studio Session for WXPN’s local music web site, The Key back in November that you should check out here.

**************************************************************************************************************************************Zilla Rocca
Rapper, producer, storyteller, hip-hop provocateur Zilla Rocca has got a very cool self-contained little cottage industry going on working with the likes of Curly Castro and Has-Lo as The Wrecking Crew and working with producers like the Small Professor and Dr. Quandary. Rocca had a busy 2011 busting out singles, EP’s, various videos and is currently at work on a Wu-Tang remix tribute project (check out the track below). Listen to one of Rocca’s highlights of 2011 below, the Nights & Weekends EP.

Saturn Never Sleeps
Long time DJ/musician/producer/global musical entrepreneur King Britt collaborated with Rucyl on Yesterday’s Machine, a collection of mellowtronica with R&B, silky soul and post-dubstep flourishes. You can download the album for free here. Rucyl’s voice has that sexy-as-Sade vibe to it and the album from start to finish feels like a distant cousin to Massive Attack. Smooth as silk.

**************************************************************************************************************************************Lantern
Lantern is a three piece fronted by Zachary Devereux Fairbroter and features Emily Robb on bass and vocals and Sophie White on Drums. The band first caught my attention with this cover of “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” written by the legendary Willie Dixon. Since landing in Philly last year the band has put out a series of EP’s, singles, etc that capture early blues with some hot indie-rock lo-fi punk-rock psychosauce urgency. They’re a little bit Capt. Beefheart, a little bit early Stones, a little bit Jon Spencer, a little bit Charlie Christian and now that’s he’s come to his senses, a little bit Elvis P. The band’s latest jawn is a live EP they released with Dirty Beaches that you can grab here. This cat and kittens can really distill the jams.

**************************************************************************************************************************************Scot Sax
Scot Sax is a one man rock and roll classic rock machine. “Classic” not so much in the sense of the same 250 songs we hear on classic rock radio (although you can feel that) but classic in the sense that since his days in Wanderlust, Sax has a sense of classic pop/rock songwriting that is just sort of off the charts. Whether it’s power pop, glam, indie rock or yes, “classic” classic rock, Sax just never sits still musically and this year put together Queen Electric, a power trio featuring Phil D’Agostino on bass and Mike Pietrusko on drums. With Queen Electric, Sax continues to showcase his versatility as a musician who is an excellent songwriter, player and pop craftsman. And yes, a massive Bowie fan. You can QE’s album for a “name your price” price below.

**************************************************************************************************************************************The Wurx
You may not be familiar with rap duo The Wurx but that’s all about to change real soon. G. Moolah & Trons are coming up quick, with some high profile joints and an even higher profile moment they had recently with The Roots’ Black Thought when they dropped by Tony Touch’s radio show that you can check out here. Keep your eyes (and ears) on these guys; listen to a couple jawns below. It’s like 1995 all over again. I am definitely looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

***************************************************************************************************************************************Arches
With each new release, these dreamgazers keep getting better and better. Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller said it best about this band: “Arches music straddles that fine line between the beautiful lull of the undulating waves of an ocean and the part of the scene where you feel a tug on your leg from below.”

***************************************************************************************************************************************Nicos Gun
With a string of singles, lots of hard work and now their debut full length debut (download below), Nicos Gun are about as fun a band that you can experience live. Prince, Bowie, Robert Palmer and LCD influences abound however these guys have found the rock flavor in the funk and push it push it push it.

Philly beat maker, beat collector and producer Small Professor has a new album coming out called Gigantic, Vol. 1 on January 24th featuring some pretty strong voices including Guilty Simpson, Von Pea, Blueprint, Buff1 and Stik Figa. Also appearing on the album are Philly’s Wrecking Crew, featuring the wildly talented Zilla Rocca, Has-Lo, and Curly Castro. You can stream “When The Last Leaf Falls” featuring Has-Lo below. It’s a pretty strong, pretty tight jawn.

Philly MC and producer Zilla Rocca releases his new Kickstarter funded Nights & Weekends EP today. Rocca’s third solo collection features appearances from Has-Lo (Mello Music Group/ Wrecking Crew), Dr. Quandary (World Around Records), Brian Brizzo (Lessondary Crew), Curly Castro (Wrecking Crew), Small Professor (Wrecking Crew) and others. Rocca recorded, mixed and mastered it himself. The collection fuses hip-hop, lounge, reggae, R&B and rap into a sultry and eclectic brew of head nodding jams. Rocca’s always had a very focused and funky musical vision and this is his best album to date. You can download the album at whatever price you want to pay for it over here. Below, download a couple of the highlights for free from the album.

philly rapper/hip-hopper Zilla Rocca has been a busy guy. He’s wrapped up his new Kickstarter funded Nights & Weekends EP. He also collaborated with Dr. Quandry. Download “Black Cherry” from the EP and “Vienna” from his project with Quandry below. As the kids say: “the beats” and “the flow” are ridiculously phat.

Zilla Rocca has released the first song from his forthcoming Nights & Weekends EP that you can download below. “Full Spectrum” features fellow Wrecking Crew member Has-Lo and was produced by Dr. Quandary. Download it below. This Thursday night Zilla Rocca will be backed up by Curly Castro for a free show at The Rogues Gallery 11 S. 21st St. (between Market and Chestnut near the Medusa Lounge) at 9PM, 21+ show.

South Philly born, raised and block rockin’ Zilla Rocca<>is one of our favorite DJ’s/rappers/producers/writers. He’s just dropped a new collection of beats and loops called Big Stupid Bangers. It’s a collection of 35 jams; some stone cold beats that could rock any party until the break of dawn and some signature futuristic-noir grooves that Zilla and his 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers are known for.

Zilla speaks:

Here’s 35 beats from yours truly. Most of these tracks were for projects that never dropped. Some are mixed beautifully and arranged as full songs. Others are just demo loops. Either way, you can’t go wrong hearing the best of what I’ve been quietly cooking up on the production tip since 2005.